Anna's awakening passion changes the pattern of her social life. She avoids the serious group because its members are hypocrites, and attends the brilliant functions of Betsy's set. Her sudden awareness of hypocrisy reflects her awareness of her own deceit. This deceit, however, is twofold. Anna suspects that her emotionally incomplete existence as the faithful wife of a man she realizes now she does not love was basically hypocritical. The other source of deceit is adultery, a condition of fraud defined by society. At the same time, adultery provides the only means by which Anna can redeem her false marriage: Through Vronsky she can achieve a truthful love relationship. This conflict between emotional truth and formal truth is the basis of Anna's tragedy.
At the point of Karenin's talk with Anna, however, there is no conflict. While her husband points out the social consequences of "indiscretion" and "tactless behavior," Anna can barely suppress a smile. Social convention, her smile says, is a trivial matter compared with emotional values, and her feelings for Karenin are trivial compared with her passion for Vronsky.
The tragic consequences of "stepping into a new life" suddenly loom large and real when Anna and Vronsky consummate their relationship. A life with two husbands is that of an outlaw: Having broken one of the most forceful social conventions, Anna denies herself the protection society offers. She has no one left but her "accomplice."
Vronsky's position is less serious than Anna's, and he has pursued his conquest with more frivolous intentions. Though his love is deep--deeper than he realizes--his officers' code of behavior sets a prestige value on seducing married women: the higher her social standing, the higher the man's prestige. Tolstoy shows Vronsky's awareness of these values as Betsy and her cousin chat during intermission at the opera.
Only when he sees Anna's shame and when she rejects his platitudes about "moment of happiness" does Vronsky gain insight into the seriousness of his crime against her. Tolstoy's analogy of a murderer and his victim underscores the extent of Vronsky's commitment to Anna and forecasts her doom and his culpability.
